Weird abandoned concrete house in Kansas

November 10, 2010 at 5:57 pm

This strange poured-concrete abandoned house is in Shawnee county (near Topeka), Kansas, and was sent to us by Cheryl Long, editor of The Mother Earth News.

“Supposedly, there were 20 such houses planned to be constructed on the surrounding 5 acres, but only this house was built. The house faces east and has a solar panel on the south side. This house had the Ultraflo water system installed. The model in this house dates to the mid 1970s. Refrigerator manual in house was from 1973.…Concrete over wood framing used inside house. Steel rebar used extensively for structural support and utilitarian use (stair rail, towel racks, front entry gate). Floor of house is brick laid in a radial pattern, with the fireplace as the center point. Built-in sofas and end tables; cantilevered stair to loft, fiberglass reinforced stucco coating over concrete.…https://khri.kansasgis.org/index.cfm?tab=details&in=177-3152&startrow=1&sort=historic_name&revision=4

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Newspaper wood

November 10, 2010 at 3:41 pm

From boingboing yesterday:

“Kranthout (“newspaper wood” in Dutch) is a new product that has been developed by Mieke Meijer for design company vij5…. As the name suggests, this is ‘wood’ made from newspaper. The individual pages are rolled together using a specially developed machine to produce tabloid sized ‘logs’, which can then be milled into planks, drilled and sanded just as real wood might. Neatly, the kranthout also replicates the grain of wood, with streaks of text or color photographs revealed in the new planks when it is cut.”

https://is.gd/gUaWk

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Museum of rural architecture in Estonia

November 9, 2010 at 5:47 pm

Veiko Lasting sent us this link to an open air museum on Estonia that, among other displays, has a number (12) of Estonian farms shown in “virtualtour” 360º panoramas. https://www.evm.ee/keel/eng/

“The Estonian Open Air Museum is akin to a village, with 12 farms, as well as its own church, tavern and schoolhouse. There are a number of mills, a fire station, fishing net sheds as well as a dancing area and a village swing.

The museum is located in a lovely, well-maintained forest park on a high sandstone bank on Kopli Bay, just 15 minutes drive from the center of Tallinn.”

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Feedback at Green Festival

November 7, 2010 at 11:58 pm

The feedback at these events is really gratifying. Shelter really changed a lot of peopl’e’s lives. A guy stopped by a little while ago and said that he ran across a copy of HomeWork in a remote area in Brazil.

A 40s-year-old guy just now came to the booth, pointed to Shelter, and said, “I was reading this when I was a kid and it sparked a bunch of things in my later life.”

“How old were you?”

He thought for a minute, then said, “About 5.”

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